In modern society, computers and electronic information permeate almost all aspects of life and business. In creating and developing the computer applications, graphics, electronic documents, forms, and other projects of the like, that make up the world of computing, developers typically use some kind of application development environment (ADE). ADEs allow the developers to code, script, or graphically create any variety of such projects. Some ADEs are general in nature, allowing for creation of various types of computer applications, graphics, or forms, while other ADEs are specific to the type of programming language or application that is being produced. For example, graphical ADEs, such as Adobe Systems Incorporated's ILLUSTRATOR®, FREEHAND®, and the like allow users to create graphics. Web ADEs, such as Adobe Systems Incorporated's DREAMWEAVER®, GOLIVE®, Microsoft Corporation's FRONTPAGET™, and the like, allow users to create Web pages, Websites, and other Internet-related content. Form ADEs, such as Adobe Systems Incorporated's ADOBE™ FORM DESIGNER, allow users to create sophisticated data capture forms, while word processing ADEs, such as Microsoft Corporation's, MS WORD™, Corel Corporation's WORDPERFECTT™, and the like, allow users to create electronic documents, forms, and other such documents.
Many ADEs include user interface features referred to as inspectors or property inspectors to aid the developer/designer in creating the various projects. Inspectors are interface panels, windows, or windoids that are typically associated with particular features, sections, or elements of ADE menus or pallets. For example, when the user is working with the layout tools of an ADE, there may be a layout inspector which gives the layout information for any selected object. If the user then switches to a style panel that is featured in a particular ADE to see the styling of a particular object, there may also be a Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) inspector. Therefore, there may be multiple inspectors for one feature, pallet, menu, or the like. These inspectors provide a view into the data that pertains to the portion of the application document selected, and typically allow the user to change properties directly in the inspector window. Early property inspectors allowed a user to make a selection of a single object in the development canvas to display the properties of that element. The user would then be able to either change the properties by interacting with the object on the canvas, or change the object properties directly from the property inspector.
In many design-related activities, however, it is often desirable to make changes over a group of different objects on the design canvas. To facilitate this desired functionality, ADEs were developed that allow the user to select multiple objects on the design canvas in which the inspector would show properties for the group of objects. Such a group-enabled inspector is usually either “inclusive,” meaning that it displays all of the properties as visible and usable, or enabled even though it may only apply property value changes to a subset of objects in the selected group, or it may be “exclusive,” meaning that it only shows properties to be visible and usable, or enabled if all the properties pertain to each of the objects within the selection.
Novice users typically prefer the “exclusive” inspectors because the novice user may generally be confused when an “inclusive” inspector does not apply property value changes to all selected objects. Advanced users, on the other hand, typically prefer the “inclusive” inspectors because they allow the advanced users to make more sweeping changes to differing property sets regardless of whether a property pertains to a particular object. “Exclusive” property inspectors would generally prevent the advanced user from doing this. The disadvantage to the advanced user using an “inclusive” inspector, however, is that the advanced user would still generally prefer to know which properties apply only to some, but not all, of the selected objects.
Some property inspectors within various ADEs also provide for mixed data indicators, which define when a particular property has different values because the multiple objects within the group of selected objects to which it applies may not all have the same value. For example, if a property inspector in a graphical ADE identifies the X-coordinate of a group of several objections, it may display the word “mixed” or some other similar type of visual indicator because several of the objects have different X-coordinates which could not be displayed together in a meaningful way. However, the mixed data indicator does not indicate whether or not the property applies to all of the objects within the selection. Therefore, while this mixed data indicator assists in informing the user that there are multiple values for a particular property across several selected objects, it does not address the issue of the case in which a particular property only applies to some, but not all of the selected objects.